鲁宾孙飘流记 英文版 Robinson Crusoe
丹尼尔.笛福 Daniel Defoe
CHAPTER V - BUILDS A HOUSE - THE JOURNAL Page 2
But to return to my Journal.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my walldone; and the 14th of April I closed it up, contriving to go intoit, not by a door but over the wall, by a ladder, that there mightbe no sign on the outside of my habitation.
APRIL 16. - I finished the ladder; so I went up the ladder to thetop, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside.This was a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough,and nothing could come at me from without, unless it could firstmount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished I had almost had allmy labour overthrown at once, and myself killed. The case wasthus: As I was busy in the inside, behind my tent, just at theentrance into my cave, I was terribly frighted with a mostdreadful, surprising thing indeed; for all on a sudden I found theearth come crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and from theedge of the hill over my head, and two of the posts I had set up inthe cave cracked in a frightful manner. I was heartily scared; butthought nothing of what was really the cause, only thinking thatthe top of my cave was fallen in, as some of it had done before:and for fear I should be buried in it I ran forward to my ladder,and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got over my wall forfear of the pieces of the hill, which I expected might roll downupon me. I had no sooner stepped do ground, than I plainly saw itwas a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook threetimes at about eight minutes' distance, with three such shocks aswould have overturned the strongest building that could be supposedto have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rockwhich stood about half a mile from me next the sea fell down withsuch a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life. I perceivedalso the very sea was put into violent motion by it; and I believethe shocks were stronger under the water than on the island.
I was so much amazed with the thing itself, having never felt thelike, nor discoursed with any one that had, that I was like onedead or stupefied; and the motion of the earth made my stomachsick, like one that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the fallingof the rock awakened me, as it were, and rousing me from thestupefied condition I was in, filled me with horror; and I thoughtof nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all myhousehold goods, and burying all at once; and this sunk my verysoul within me a second time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, Ibegan to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough to go over mywall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon theground greatly cast down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do.All this while I had not the least serious religious thought;nothing but the common "Lord have mercy upon me!" and when it wasover that went away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow cloudy, as ifit would rain. Soon after that the wind arose by little andlittle, so that in less than half-an-hour it blew a most dreadfulhurricane; the sea was all on a sudden covered over with foam andfroth; the shore was covered with the breach of the water, thetrees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible storm it was. Thisheld about three hours, and then began to abate; and in two hoursmore it was quite calm, and began to rain very hard. All thiswhile I sat upon the ground very much terrified and dejected; whenon a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these winds and rainbeing the consequences of the earthquake, the earthquake itself wasspent and over, and I might venture into my cave again. With thisthought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping topersuade me, I went in and sat down in my tent. But the rain wasso violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and Iwas forced to go into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy,for fear it should fall on my head. This violent rain forced me toa new work - viz. to cut a hole through my new fortification, likea sink, to let the water go out, which would else have flooded mycave. After I had been in my cave for some time, and found stillno more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be morecomposed. And now, to support my spirits, which indeed wanted itvery much, I went to my little store, and took a small sup of rum;which, however, I did then and always very sparingly, knowing Icould have no more when that was gone. It continued raining allthat night and great part of the next day, so that I could not stirabroad; but my mind being more composed, I began to think of what Ihad best do; concluding that if the island was subject to theseearthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but I mustconsider of building a little hut in an open place which I mightsurround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make myself securefrom wild beasts or men; for I concluded, if I stayed where I was,I should certainly one time or other be buried alive.
With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the placewhere it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of thehill; and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fallupon my tent; and I spent the two next days, being the 19th and20th of April, in contriving where and how to remove my habitation.The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never slept inquiet; and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any fencewas almost equal to it; but still, when I looked about, and saw howeverything was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, andhow safe from danger, it made me very loath to remove. In themeantime, it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal oftime for me to do this, and that I must be contented to venturewhere I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had securedit so as to remove to it. So with this resolution I composedmyself for a time, and resolved that I would go to work with allspeed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c., in a circle,as before, and set my tent up in it when it was finished; but thatI would venture to stay where I was till it was finished, and fitto remove. This was the 21st.
APRIL 22. - The next morning I begin to consider of means to putthis resolve into execution; but I was at a great loss about mytools. I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for wecarried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but with muchchopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full ofnotches, and dull; and though I had a grindstone, I could not turnit and grind my tools too. This cost me as much thought as astatesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or ajudge upon the life and death of a man. At length I contrived awheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might haveboth my hands at liberty. NOTE. - I had never seen any such thingin England, or at least, not to take notice how it was done, thoughsince I have observed, it is very common there; besides that, mygrindstone was very large and heavy. This machine cost me a fullweek's work to bring it to perfection.
APRIL 28, 29. - These two whole days I took up in grinding mytools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well.
a stone; however,I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on upon thesands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look formore.enough.
APRIL 30. - Having perceived my bread had been low a great while,now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit cake aday, which made my heart very heavy.
MAY 1. - In the morning, looking towards the sea side, the tidebeing low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary,and it looked like a cask; when I came to it, I found a smallbarrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, whichwere driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards thewreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the waterthan it used to do. I examined the barrel which was driven onshore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder; but it hadtaken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone; however,I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on upon thesands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look formore.